The prior art discloses a number of pet feeder apparatus for feeding both large and small animals, and especially domesticated animals that live indoors, such as, for example, cats and dogs. It is desirable to be able to make food available for pets at appropriate times. It is, therefore, an accepted practice to simply leave a bowl of food at some out of the way location, usually on a porch or in the kitchen. Feeding the pet requires having to bend over to place the feeding dish on the floor and thereafter, to again bend over to retrieve the dish. This is hard on the back of older people. Also, crawling bugs are attracted to the contents of an open feeding bowl. Further, some pets can remove the bowl to most any place in the house and a person is liable to trip over the bowl, especially in a darkened room.
Accordingly, it would be desirable to provided a covered feeding bowl and to eliminate the need for bending over to place or to retrieve a feeding or water bowl from the floor. It would further be desirable to be able to elevate the feeding bowl above the floor to most any selected height according to the size of the pet, and to support the bowl free of an adjacent wall. These desirable attributes would have the additional advantage of training the pet to keep its head up, even when eating; but more importantly, crawling bugs would be unable to get into the bowl because the bowl would be suspended above the floor and away from the adjacent wall.
Further, the bowl should be easily retrievable for cleaning and, preferably, of a design to enable it to be placed within a dishwasher. This also would reduce infection for the pet because a clean bowl is much more sanitary than one left on the floor or on the ground.
Apparatus having these desirable attributes is the subject of the present invention.